Special military intelligence team killed Lasantha

CID informs Magistrate’s court:

March 20, 2017, 10:31 pm

The CID yesterday informed the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court that the assassination of Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga had been carried out, in 2009, by a special group, operating under the then military intelligence head Maj Gen Kapila Hendawitharana, attached to the Joint Operations Command.

The CID informed the court that their investigations had found that the same group had been involved in attacks on journalists, Keith Noyahr and Upali Tennakoon and abducting several other media persons.

The CID also informed the court that the special group had used five SIM cards to make calls as regards the assassination of Wickrematunge.

The CID said that it had recorded a statement from former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka on the assassination of The Sunday Leader editor. At the time of the incident Maj. Gen. Ajith Perera had been in charge of the Colombo division, the CID told the court, quoting Fonseka. Perera has retired.

Mount Lavinia Chief Magistrate Mohamed Mihaim has ordered an intelligence unit member, currently on bail after being taken into custody over the Wickrematunga assassination, to report to Court between 9.00 am to 12 pm on the last Saturday of every month.

The case will be taken for hearing again on June 19.

The CID yesterday told the court that a group of medical experts who examined the Wickrematunga’s remains exhumed a few months ago had concluded that he was killed with a sharp weapon. He had suffered injuries to the brain, police told the Court.